Traditional roller skates, having sets of wheels in tandem, have long been used in the relatively controlled environment of a skating rink. In a skating rink, the skating surface is typically flat and smooth, skaters travel in the same direction around an oval or circular track, and there are few unexpected hazards. There has been, therefore, little need for an effective brake on a traditional roller skate.
Relatively recently, a faster and more maneuverable type of roller skate has been introduced. These skates, known as "inline" skates because the wheels are mounted in a line rather than in tandem, act much as an ice skate. Inline skates are offered in the United States by several vendors, including Rollerblade, Veraflex, Bauer, California Pro, and Hyper Wheels. Inline skates have appealed to the athletic adult and young adult, and to persons who enjoy the outdoors. Such skates are commonly used outside, on uneven sidewalks, bicycle paths, and roads. Skaters can achieve high speeds and can become a hazard to themselves and others when skating more rapidly than conditions allow. There is a need for an effective brake for inline skating to become a sport that is safe as well as enjoyable.
A brake commonly used on inline skates involves a fixed friction pad that extends behind the heel of the skate. The fixed friction pad is disposed above the skating surface and is made to swing down towards the skating surface by the skater's pivoting the skate about the axis of the rear wheel. As the skater does so, raising the toe of the skate and rotating the heel downward, the friction pad behind the heel will contact the ground and stop the skate. Such systems have also been used on tandem wheeled skates, and, because the speeds are not so high, can involve a fixed friction pad that extends in front of the toe of the skate. In this case, the skater brings the friction pad to bear on the skating surface by raising the heel and lowering the toe.
Examples of these physically activated (toe-raised, or toe-lowered) brakes include those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,901,259 (tandem wheeled skates, brake member in the toe section, braking performed by lowering the toe); 4,313,610 of Volk (a friction-damped wheel in the heel section, braking performed by raising the toe); 4,865,342 of Kong (for a skate board). The adaptation of such a brake for use with an inline skate is shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,394,028 of Wheelwright; 4,418,929 of Gray; 4,909,523 of Olson; 5,052,701 of Olson; and 5,067,736 of Olson.
Disadvantages of the physically activated, toe-raised (or lowered), brakes include these: (a) the braking maneuver requires the exercise of thigh muscle strength, and a skater's fatigue will make the maneuver more difficult to perform, (b) the braking maneuver requires the skater to place himself or herself in an awkward position, and a skater's lack of dexterity or balance will make the maneuver difficult to perform, especially if the skater is moving at relatively high speed or encounters an unexpected hazard, and (c) such brakes can only be used on one skate, effectively halving the potential stopping force available.
It may be said, in general, that an inexperienced skater finds it very intimidating to move his or her foot through such a large arc that he or she must jeopardize their balance in order to apply the brake. This has made many potentially new skaters reluctant to take up the sport at all.
There has been much interest in attempting to solve the problems of toe-raised (or lowered) brakes so as to make inline skating a sport that can be enjoyed by other than the young, the fit, or the reckless. Current attempts to do so have been directed towards replacing the physically-activated brake with a mechanically activated device. There have been attempts to mount a caliper or disc brake adjacent to the side or tread of one of the wheels of the skate. A hand lever-and-cable system can be used by the skater to apply friction pressure to the side or to the tread of the wheel, and the skate can be made to stop without the need for special body movement by a skater.
Examples of these mechanically activated (wheel based) brakes include those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,295,547 of Dungan; 4,312,514 of Horowitz et al.; 4,943,075 of Gates; and 4,943,072 of Henig.
Disadvantages of trying to use the wheel of an inline skate for stopping include these: (a) the amount of contact that a wheel can have with the skating surface is very small when compared to the amount of contact that a friction pad behind the skate could have, (b) because inline skate wheels encounter considerable wear, and the wear is uneven, it is possible that the wheel selected for braking may have little, or no, contact with the ground, (c) heat generated by the rubbing of a brake pad on the wheel may cause the wheel to break down and fall apart, (d) the wheel selected for braking may develop flat spots and cause rough skating, and (e) the replacement cost of a skate wheel is high compared to the cost of replacing a friction pad behind the skate.
Thus, there are two general kinds of brake systems currently available. The first kind of brake stops the skate by using a physical maneuver to bring a pad into contact with the skating surface (toe-raised or toe-lowered brakes). The second kind of brake stops the skate by using a mechanically activated device to bring a pad into contact with a wheel of the skate (wheel-based brakes).
There are also some composite brakes, in which a physical maneuver is used both to bring a pad into contact with the skating surface and to bring another pad into contact with a wheel of the skate. Examples are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,893 of Huang (brake member in the heel section, braking performed by depressing the heel); and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,453,726 of Ziegler. Composite brakes of this kind still fall into the general category of toe-raised or toe-lowered brakes and share all of the previously discussed disadvantages of the physically activated brake.
Despite the work which has been done to develop an optimum inline skate brake, each of the existing brakes has problems. Either they are hard to use (that is, the physically activated, toe-raised or toe-lowered brakes), or they offer relatively small effective stopping force (that is, the mechanically activated, wheel-based brakes). Accordingly, it can be seen that there is a need for an inline skate brake that better meets the needs of a skater.
The desired inline skate brake should have a relatively large effective area in contact with the skating surface so as to maximize the effective stopping power of the brake. In addition, the desired inline skate brake should permit an independent selection of the material for the portion that is in effective contact with the skating surface. That is, this important portion of the brake assembly should be selected without regard to factors other than its effectiveness (durability, coefficient of friction, and so on) for stopping the skate. These concerns suggest that the desired brake will not be a wheel-based brake in which the only area in contact with the ground is the wheel and in which the material in effective contact with the ground must be the same material as is used in the wheel itself.
The desired inline skate brake should be capable of being fitted to both skates, rather to just one skate, so as to double the effective braking surface area in contact with the skating surface. In addition, the desired inline skate brake should use the skater's hand, rather than his or her foot or leg, to activate the movement of the braking pad. Using the hand to activate the brake will allow the skater to use his or her total body, including hands, to maintain good balance at all times, including times when the skater needs to slow down or stop and when the need for balance may be greatest. These concerns suggest that the desired brake will not be a toe-raised or toe-lowered brake.
In addition, the desired inline skate brake should be capable of being retrofitted to most existing skates and should be capable of being installed as original equipment by skate manufacturers at reasonable cost. If the skate brake is mechanically activated, it should have a secondary, or "emergency," brake that can be used in the event of mechanical failure of the primary activator. If a cable-and-hand-lever activator is used, it should have some means for conveniently retaining the cables and hand levers.
It is a specific object of the current invention to provide a brake system that is mechanically activated, that uses the skating surface (rather than a wheel of the skate) for generating stopping force while the angle of the skate relative to the ground remains constant, that has a large effective area in contact with the skating surface, that can be fitted to both skates, that allows for an independent selection of the material in contact with the braking surface, that incorporates an emergency brake, that can be readily installed in new or used skates, and that conveniently retains all cables and hand-levers which are a part of the system. These, and other advantages, of the brake system of this invention will become apparent in the remainder of this disclosure.
Although this disclosure is directed towards the newer "inline" skates, it should be understood that the brake system of this invention may be readily adapted to the traditional tandem skates, skate boards, ski skates, and to other skating devices.